Personal Responsibility
I liked Seth Godin’s post on Reacting, Responding and Initiating.
It kinda made me stop and reflect.
Recently I have been stretching myself to just about everywhere, non stop events, event on weekends, preparing for client meetings in the weekends, getting SilverCamp together, replying to my plethora of emails, you name it!
But at the back of my head the first habit of highly effective people as written by Stephen Covey in his book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” gently reminds me I should stop being reactive and start being proactive.
Seth starts his post along the same lines explaining the difference between reacting and responding and ends it by saying that some marketing jobs are about responding, none are about reacting and the best are about initiating.
You could apply the same principle to time too…
And I agree with Seth when he says that we don’t spend enough time initiating.
Which bring me to what Stephen Covey says about taking initiative - “Taking initiative means recognizing our responsibility to make things happen”
I believe if you are responsible you wouldn’t have problems taking initiatives.
Now think of what the word “responsibility” means to you… Go on… Take a moment and think…
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No cheating… Go on…
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Now Take a look at the same word when its broken down –> “response-ability” –> The ability to choose your response… (from Stephen Covey’s book)
Now think about responsibility – it’s a small word with a very deep meaning…
No wonder a lot of people are scared of it – as Stephen Covey put it, ‘It’s so much safer to say “I’m not responsible”. If you say “I’m responsible” you might have to say “I’m irresponsible” ’
Suggestion : Read the line above again and take a moment to digest it.
Tyson once shared a line with me from Starship Troopers which now I share with others…
It was the line delivered by Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) in Starship Troopers – “Someone asked me once if I knew the difference between a civilian and a citizen. I know now. A citizen has the courage to make the safety of the human race their personal responsibility”
Personal Responsibility – it changes the whole game!
Next time you have a task in front of you, try taking personal responsibility for it… You’d go a lot further and amaze a lot of people including yourself…
Cheers.
- Rohan Thomas